Gir.Core-Gtk4 always checks Path environment variable for native libraries, but not executable directory

[PlatinumLucario]

I'm probably missing something in the .csproj file of the project, or is this what the bindings requires? When I remove the environment variable for the required native libraries and run the executable for the project I'm developing, it will come up with this error:

Followed by this error in the command line after it has finished with those error dialogs:

And yet, all the required native libraries are in the same directory as the executable:

The reason I'm asking, is because I plan to package future projects with the native libraries, so that it won't require the end user to install GTK4 libraries elsewhere just in order to run it.

Here's how the csproj looks like as of now:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">

  <PropertyGroup>
    <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
    <TargetFramework>net8.0</TargetFramework>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <None Remove="**\*.ui" />
    <EmbeddedResource Include="**\*.ui">
      <LogicalName>%(Filename)%(Extension)</LogicalName>
    </EmbeddedResource>
  </ItemGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="GirCore.Gtk-4.0" Version="0.4.0" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <ProjectReference Include="..\Bassoon\Bassoon.csproj" />
  </ItemGroup>
  
  <Import Condition="$([MSBuild]::IsOSPlatform('Windows'))" Project="..\..\third_party\lib\gtk4\win-x64\bundle_gtk.targets" />

</Project>

And in the bundle_gtk.targets:

<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
  <!-- Based on the bundle_gtk.targets file from Pinta: https://github.com/PintaProject/Pinta/ -->
  <!-- Install GTK library dependencies on Windows, from the MSYS installation. -->
  <PropertyGroup>
    <!-- Note this can be overridden by an environment variable with the same name. -->
    <MinGWFolder>C:\msys64\mingw64</MinGWFolder>
    <MinGWBinFolder>$(MinGWFolder)\bin</MinGWBinFolder>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <!-- Library link dependencies (run `ldd libgtk-4-1.dll | grep '\/mingw.*\.dll' -o`) -->
    <GtkFile Include="$(MinGWBinFolder)\libcairo-2.dll" />
    <GtkFile Include="$(MinGWBinFolder)\libcairo-gobject-2.dll" />
    <GtkFile Include="$(MinGWBinFolder)\libgdk_pixbuf-2.0-0.dll" />
    <GtkFile Include="$(MinGWBinFolder)\libgio-2.0-0.dll" />
    <GtkFile Include="$(MinGWBinFolder)\libglib-2.0-0.dll" />
    <GtkFile Include="$(MinGWBinFolder)\libgmodule-2.0-0.dll" />
    <GtkFile Include="$(MinGWBinFolder)\libgobject-2.0-0.dll" />
    <GtkFile Include="$(MinGWBinFolder)\libgraphene-1.0-0.dll" />
    <GtkFile Include="$(MinGWBinFolder)\libgraphite2.dll" />
    <GtkFile Include="$(MinGWBinFolder)\libgtk-4-1.dll" />
    <GtkFile Include="$(MinGWBinFolder)\libgtksourceview-5-0.dll" />
    <GtkFile Include="$(MinGWBinFolder)\libharfbuzz-0.dll" />
    <GtkFile Include="$(MinGWBinFolder)\libharfbuzz-gobject-0.dll" />
    <GtkFile Include="$(MinGWBinFolder)\libpango-1.0-0.dll" />
    <GtkFile Include="$(MinGWBinFolder)\libpangocairo-1.0-0.dll" />
    <GtkFile Include="$(MinGWBinFolder)\libpangowin32-1.0-0.dll" />

    <!-- <GtkFile Include="$(MinGWFolder)\share\glib-2.0\schemas\**" LinkBase="..\share\glib-2.0\schemas" /> -->
  </ItemGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <Content Include="@(GtkFile)">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </Content>
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

I've even tried using ContentWithTargetLink in there, made no difference. So I'm quite puzzled over this.

I'm really curious to know what I'm missing.

[badcel]

I can only guess what the problem is as I'm not using the binaries with windows:

1. You mean if you don't add the msys2 bin folder to the path environment variable the above error occurs?

2. with the path set everything works like expected?

3. You did copy the binaries from the msys2 binaries folder?

4. GirCore does not publish a GModule nuget. So there is no nuget package which could reference it. For me this means this is unrelated to the bindings but related to the msys2 binaries.

[badcel]

Did you try to copy over the whole msys2 bin folder to see if there is something else missing?

[PlatinumLucario]

To summarise:

1. Yep! If the msys2 bin folder isn't in the path environment variable, the error occurs.
2. Yep! It works with no problems when the msys2 bin folder is in the path environment variable.
3. Yep! The csproj copies the needed binaries from the msys2 binaries folder.
4. Oh I see, so there's no references for that library, understandable.

Did you try to copy over the whole msys2 bin folder to see if there is something else missing?

Interestingly enough, copying over all the contents in the bin folder into the same directory as the project's executable actually worked, so I'm really curious now as to which executables and libraries are actually needed for libgtk-4-0.dll to function.

[badcel]

If you find the source of the problem it would be nice if you could report back.

Perhaps you even find some time to add your findings to the documentation?

[badcel]

Perhaps it would be even better to add a new page "deployment". Which would describe how to integrate the depending binaries into a csproj for windows to just call "dotnet publish" and everything works like expected.

Later there could be sections for Linux / Mac be added.

[PlatinumLucario]

Okay, so after finding that the issue was missing dependencies, I did some research into what libgtk-4-1.dll needs as dependencies. And to do that, I used the ldd libgtk-4-1.dll command in the msys2 terminal:

Silve@DESKTOP-IGF114H MSYS /mingw64/bin
$ ldd libgtk-4-1.dll
        ntdll.dll => /c/WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/ntdll.dll (0x7ff934250000)
        KERNEL32.DLL => /c/WINDOWS/System32/KERNEL32.DLL (0x7ff934070000)
        KERNELBASE.dll => /c/WINDOWS/System32/KERNELBASE.dll (0x7ff931c30000)
        msvcrt.dll => /c/WINDOWS/System32/msvcrt.dll (0x7ff9333e0000)
        ADVAPI32.dll => /c/WINDOWS/System32/ADVAPI32.dll (0x7ff9330f0000)
        sechost.dll => /c/WINDOWS/System32/sechost.dll (0x7ff933fd0000)
        RPCRT4.dll => /c/WINDOWS/System32/RPCRT4.dll (0x7ff9323b0000)
        bcrypt.dll => /c/WINDOWS/System32/bcrypt.dll (0x7ff931f30000)
        comdlg32.dll => /c/WINDOWS/System32/comdlg32.dll (0x7ff932df0000)
        combase.dll => /c/WINDOWS/System32/combase.dll (0x7ff932a90000)
        ucrtbase.dll => /c/WINDOWS/System32/ucrtbase.dll (0x7ff931a30000)
        shcore.dll => /c/WINDOWS/System32/shcore.dll (0x7ff934160000)
        USER32.dll => /c/WINDOWS/System32/USER32.dll (0x7ff9331b0000)
        win32u.dll => /c/WINDOWS/System32/win32u.dll (0x7ff931f60000)
        GDI32.dll => /c/WINDOWS/System32/GDI32.dll (0x7ff934130000)
        gdi32full.dll => /c/WINDOWS/System32/gdi32full.dll (0x7ff931f90000)
        msvcp_win.dll => /c/WINDOWS/System32/msvcp_win.dll (0x7ff931990000)
        SHLWAPI.dll => /c/WINDOWS/System32/SHLWAPI.dll (0x7ff9337f0000)
        SHELL32.dll => /c/WINDOWS/System32/SHELL32.dll (0x7ff933860000)
        CRYPT32.dll => /c/WINDOWS/System32/CRYPT32.dll (0x7ff932140000)
        IMM32.dll => /c/WINDOWS/System32/IMM32.dll (0x7ff9335d0000)
        ole32.dll => /c/WINDOWS/System32/ole32.dll (0x7ff9324f0000)
        SETUPAPI.dll => /c/WINDOWS/System32/SETUPAPI.dll (0x7ff932620000)
        cfgmgr32.dll => /c/WINDOWS/System32/cfgmgr32.dll (0x7ff931b30000)
        COMCTL32.dll => /c/WINDOWS/WinSxS/amd64_microsoft.windows.common-controls_6595b64144ccf1df_6.0.19041.3636_none_60b6a03d71f818d5/COMCTL32.dll (0x7ff919eb0000)
        dwmapi.dll => /c/WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/dwmapi.dll (0x7ff92f1f0000)
        libgcc_s_seh-1.dll => /mingw64/bin/libgcc_s_seh-1.dll (0x7ff918f00000)
        HID.DLL => /c/WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/HID.DLL (0x7ff930130000)
        OPENGL32.dll => /c/WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/OPENGL32.dll (0x7ff912e30000)
        WINMM.dll => /c/WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/WINMM.dll (0x7ff920200000)
        WINSPOOL.DRV => /c/WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/WINSPOOL.DRV (0x7ff9202b0000)
        libcairo-gobject-2.dll => /mingw64/bin/libcairo-gobject-2.dll (0x7ff918ee0000)
        libcairo-script-interpreter-2.dll => /mingw64/bin/libcairo-script-interpreter-2.dll (0x7ff918eb0000)
        libcairo-2.dll => /mingw64/bin/libcairo-2.dll (0x7ff8cb700000)
        libepoxy-0.dll => /mingw64/bin/libepoxy-0.dll (0x7ff8bc690000)
        libfribidi-0.dll => /mingw64/bin/libfribidi-0.dll (0x7ff9173e0000)
        comctl32.dll => /c/Windows/WinSxS/amd64_microsoft.windows.common-controls_6595b64144ccf1df_6.0.19041.3636_none_60b6a03d71f818d5/comctl32.dll (0x1a2c63b0000)
        libgdk_pixbuf-2.0-0.dll => /mingw64/bin/libgdk_pixbuf-2.0-0.dll (0x7ff8f38b0000)
        libgio-2.0-0.dll => /mingw64/bin/libgio-2.0-0.dll (0x7ff88bc00000)
        WS2_32.dll => /c/WINDOWS/System32/WS2_32.dll (0x7ff932ed0000)
        libglib-2.0-0.dll => /mingw64/bin/libglib-2.0-0.dll (0x7ff88ba90000)
        libgmodule-2.0-0.dll => /mingw64/bin/libgmodule-2.0-0.dll (0x7ff918ea0000)
        libgobject-2.0-0.dll => /mingw64/bin/libgobject-2.0-0.dll (0x7ff8dadb0000)
        libgraphene-1.0-0.dll => /mingw64/bin/libgraphene-1.0-0.dll (0x7ff917270000)
        libharfbuzz-0.dll => /mingw64/bin/libharfbuzz-0.dll (0x7ff83c630000)
        libintl-8.dll => /mingw64/bin/libintl-8.dll (0x7ff8e4ba0000)
        libjpeg-8.dll => /mingw64/bin/libjpeg-8.dll (0x7ff88b9a0000)
        libpango-1.0-0.dll => /mingw64/bin/libpango-1.0-0.dll (0x7ff8d86e0000)
        libpangowin32-1.0-0.dll => /mingw64/bin/libpangowin32-1.0-0.dll (0x7ff907a30000)
        libpangocairo-1.0-0.dll => /mingw64/bin/libpangocairo-1.0-0.dll (0x7ff907050000)
        libwinpthread-1.dll => /mingw64/bin/libwinpthread-1.dll (0x7ff8f3830000)
        GLU32.dll => /c/WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/GLU32.dll (0x7ff912c30000)
        libfontconfig-1.dll => /mingw64/bin/libfontconfig-1.dll (0x7ff8d8500000)
        libfreetype-6.dll => /mingw64/bin/libfreetype-6.dll (0x7ff83d420000)
        libtiff-6.dll => /mingw64/bin/libtiff-6.dll (0x7ff8cd070000)
        liblzo2-2.dll => /mingw64/bin/liblzo2-2.dll (0x7ff8f3330000)
        zlib1.dll => /mingw64/bin/zlib1.dll (0x7ff8d86b0000)
        MSIMG32.dll => /c/WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/MSIMG32.dll (0x7ff920360000)
        libstdc++-6.dll => /mingw64/bin/libstdc++-6.dll (0x7ff83c400000)
        libpixman-1-0.dll => /mingw64/bin/libpixman-1-0.dll (0x7ff83c340000)
        libpng16-16.dll => /mingw64/bin/libpng16-16.dll (0x7ff8d9790000)
        IPHLPAPI.DLL => /c/WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/IPHLPAPI.DLL (0x7ff930d10000)
        DNSAPI.dll => /c/WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/DNSAPI.dll (0x7ff930d60000)
        libffi-8.dll => /mingw64/bin/libffi-8.dll (0x7ff918e90000)
        libpcre2-8-0.dll => /mingw64/bin/libpcre2-8-0.dll (0x7ff8d2a50000)
        USP10.dll => /c/WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/USP10.dll (0x7ff903b20000)
        libgraphite2.dll => /mingw64/bin/libgraphite2.dll (0x7ff8cf9d0000)
        libiconv-2.dll => /mingw64/bin/libiconv-2.dll (0x7ff83b310000)
        libthai-0.dll => /mingw64/bin/libthai-0.dll (0x7ff8f2f40000)
        DWrite.dll => /c/WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/DWrite.dll (0x7ff8f9990000)
        libpangoft2-1.0-0.dll => /mingw64/bin/libpangoft2-1.0-0.dll (0x7ff8dec90000)
        libexpat-1.dll => /mingw64/bin/libexpat-1.dll (0x7ff8ceb80000)
        libbz2-1.dll => /mingw64/bin/libbz2-1.dll (0x7ff8dcce0000)
        libbrotlidec.dll => /mingw64/bin/libbrotlidec.dll (0x7ff8d8690000)
        libdeflate.dll => /mingw64/bin/libdeflate.dll (0x7ff8d6d00000)
        libjbig-0.dll => /mingw64/bin/libjbig-0.dll (0x7ff8d5ff0000)
        libLerc.dll => /mingw64/bin/libLerc.dll (0x7ff83b240000)
        liblzma-5.dll => /mingw64/bin/liblzma-5.dll (0x7ff8cce70000)
        libwebp-7.dll => /mingw64/bin/libwebp-7.dll (0x7ff83b180000)
        libzstd.dll => /mingw64/bin/libzstd.dll (0x7ff83b050000)
        gdiplus.dll => /c/WINDOWS/WinSxS/amd64_microsoft.windows.gdiplus_6595b64144ccf1df_1.1.19041.3636_none_91a19322cc8a92a3/gdiplus.dll (0x7ff91f6f0000)
        libpng16-16.dll => /mingw64/bin/libpng16-16.dll (0x1a2c6060000)
        libdatrie-1.dll => /mingw64/bin/libdatrie-1.dll (0x7ff90f010000)
        libbrotlicommon.dll => /mingw64/bin/libbrotlicommon.dll (0x7ff8cb6d0000)
        libsharpyuv-0.dll => /mingw64/bin/libsharpyuv-0.dll (0x7ff8d1780000)
        DPAPI.DLL => /c/WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/DPAPI.DLL (0x7ff931710000)
        CRYPTBASE.DLL => /c/WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/CRYPTBASE.DLL (0x7ff9311e0000)
        bcryptPrimitives.dll => /c/WINDOWS/System32/bcryptPrimitives.dll (0x7ff9320b0000)
        NSI.dll => /c/WINDOWS/System32/NSI.dll (0x7ff933560000)

Now, I can rule out all the native OS libraries that are in the C:\Windows\** directory, since those libraries are integrated into the Windows OS itself and the path environment variable has the C:\Windows\System32 on a fresh Windows installation.

So that leaves just these libraries that are needed for libgtk-4-1.dll to work:

libcairo-gobject-2.dll
libcairo-script-interpreter-2.dll
libcairo-2.dll
libepoxy-0.dll
libfribidi-0.dll
libgdk_pixbuf-2.0-0.dll
libgio-2.0-0.dll
libglib-2.0-0.dll
libgmodule-2.0-0.dll
libgobject-2.0-0.dll
libgraphene-1.0-0.dll
libharfbuzz-0.dll
libintl-8.dll
libjpeg-8.dll
libpango-1.0-0.dll
libpangowin32-1.0-0.dll
libpangocairo-1.0-0.dll
libwinpthread-1.dll
libfontconfig-1.dll
libfreetype-6.dll
libtiff-6.dll
liblzo2-2.dll
zlib1.dll
libstdc++-6.dll
libpixman-1-0.dll
libpng16-16.dll
libffi-8.dll
libpcre2-8-0.dll
libgraphite2.dll
libiconv-2.dll
libthai-0.dll
libpangoft2-1.0-0.dll
libexpat-1.dll
libbz2-1.dll
libbrotlidec.dll
libdeflate.dll
libjbig-0.dll
libLerc.dll
liblzma-5.dll
libwebp-7.dll
libzstd.dll
libpng16-16.dll
libdatrie-1.dll
libbrotlicommon.dll
libsharpyuv-0.dll

I'll definitely check the other GObject-related libraries and document them as well, to see which native libraries are needed for each of them.

[badcel]

I don't know if you need to document it, as the dependencies can vary / change. Describing a way to solve the problem should be sufficient and needs less maintenance for the docs 👍